The gift of honesty

To understand others, you must know yourself.

To be forgiving, you must make peace with your mistakes.

To love generously, you must love and accept who you are.

To gain wisdom, you must learn from your lessons.

To cease judgment of others, you must heal buried anger.

To live openheartedly, you must be free of old hurts.
To connect with God, you must be still and listen.
To serve God, your actions must be selfless and intuitive.

If you feel defensive about any of these truths,
then some part of you knows they're true.
Though you may have resistance to looking at yourself,
breathe deeply until the resistance falls away.
Remember that self-honesty is a beautiful gift...
 that will lead you towards change.

Weakening the ego

Picture yourself as a woman whose life...

 is founded on wisdom and truth.

Her clearness of mind has liberated her 

from the illusions of the world.

Her desire for freedom is being fulfilled.

Spiritual growth

God doesn't always give us what we want. 

Instead he gives us the perfect lessons...

 so that we may learn to be more like Him.
Better to work at being our best self...
 than living like overindulged children.

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Living in the solution

The reason I've taught healing work for almost twenty years is because it's a solution that is nothing short of a miracle. I feel deeply disturbed that so few people have interest in doing something that would radically change their own lives and contribute to changing the world. Today I feel passionately angry regarding this topic and here's why:

Everywhere I look, I see people living unconsciously; going against their grain, seeking pleasure, power, instant gratification, and most of all, listening to fear rather than listening to God. What I don't see often are people living in the solution; people talking about their shame, their pain, their fears. We've been programed to sweep it all under the carpet. People lie everyday to themselves and to others because they fear rejection and abandonment. But every time we ignore the parts of us that cry for resolution and peace, we not only abandon and reject ourselves, but we reject God and His will for us.

What is it going to take for people to wake-up and change? What is it going to take to find the humility to even admit the wrongs? There are serious consequences for living unconsciously and we all pay the price for it.

Here's more truth: 

Why is it so hard to look deeper? Let's be honest! People fear looking at themselves because of shame and unworthiness. The unresolved issues hides behind pride, blame, judgement, arrogance, stubbornness, perfectionism, boastfulness, close-mindedness, greed, power seeking, materialism, and even religion. Too often people hide their shame behind the word God. They use religion as a way to feel superior, but let's call it what really is; self-rightedness.  Religion can be a tool to open our hearts to God, but the real walk with God is a deeply personal journey of learning to align ourselves with His wisdom. When you live in truth, then you will know God.

So what's the solution? 

Get more honest, do your work, clean up your mess. Don't make excuses or deny there's problems. Your problem becomes your children's problem. Your children's problem becomes your grandchildren's problem and on and on... 

Enough is enough! 

Personally, I'm weary of watching people spiral in their self-pride. I've watched it for years, and though it has helped motivate me to work even harder on my own stuff, I can't deny the affect I see it has the world. I will no longer be quiet about how angry it makes me. And I won't make excuses for mindlessness anymore...

*****

Your best self

Picture yourself as a woman who...

Loves her body, imperfections and all.

Re-nourishes her spirit with solitude.

Thinks carefully about her choices.

Will risk her heart by being vulnerable.

Loving discipline

There is nothing we can't change...

The mind is a like horse that for years has pulled its delivery wagon. The horse grows 
accustomed to its daily routine, and cannot be convinced easily to walk a new one. 
The mind, too, will not lightly abandon its old habits, even when it knows they cause only misery. - Paramhansa

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A strong foundation

Faith is something that gets tested over and over again to...

 help us build a stronger, more solid foundation within ourselves.

If you give into fear rather than pass the tests of faith, 

the quality of your life will diminish and the fear will grow...

****

Answered prayers

Every place I've held too tightly to, God has pried my fingers loose. He wisely stripped away the illusions I clung to for my sense of identity and safety, until all that was left was God. Each lesson in letting go helped me to step deeper into faith.

My wish as a child was to have the kind of faith my grandmother had. Where life has brought me today is the answered prayer of a child who desired something she didn't understand, but nevertheless, wanted it with her whole heart...

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Gifting the world

When you heal shame, you will be less apt to shame others.
When you resolve your own guilt, you won't project it outwards.
When you feel good enough about yourself that you can make mistakes, 
you will become a more forgiving person.
When your heart is healed, you will love generously.
When you clean off the smudges of the past, 
you will not only have the clarity to see your true beauty, 
but you will see in the beauty in all of mankind.
Know that everything you heal within yourself, 
becomes a gift to the world.

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Morning prayer

The more gratitude you feel, the more meaning life becomes...

I start my day with prayer. Here is one I use often.

"Good morning, God.

Thank you for another day that I can serve you...

 by making a difference in someone else's life,

 and at the same time, work on my own life too.

I want to continue to grow and evolve... 

so I can become all you would have me be.

I trust you will bring me the perfect circumstances today...

 to help me with both.

I will do my very best to make you proud.

Thank you for your faith in me. Amen"

*****

Above all else...

There are lots of things in life that we love and enjoy,

 but there is nothing more meaningful or fulfilling...

 than having a personal relationship with God.

*****

Awareness

Awareness is the first step towards...

 finding truth and meaning in our lives.

To have more awareness, 

our hearts and minds must be open.

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Resisting change

Reaching a breaking point is often what we need to move forward. 
The more resistant we are to change, the more it takes to break our will. 
This is when pain becomes the teacher. 
Given enough pain, we surrender and release our old ways...

*****

The power of words

Our words can healing or hurtful... 

It will be challenging to use your words to help others if you have judgment about yourself. You may be careless and insensitive with your words, or try so hard to say the right thing that it isn't authentic (people-pleasing). 

Building good self-esteem is the solution. When you find self-acceptance, it will flow effortlessly into everything you say and do...

*****

The journey of heart

If you wish to build a rich inner life, you first have to face the darkness. The darkness is an accumulation of all the things you've shoved down in your gut that you haven't made peace with. It takes a deep commitment and a lot of hard work, but you gain freedom, joy, light-heartedness, compassion, insightfulness... You earn these beautiful gifts by meeting layer after layer of shame, guilt, old hurts...

*****

Getting still

The yellow butterflies rarely land long enough to get a good photo,
 but yesterday I lucked out...

Intellectual understanding is not the same as wisdom. You can be inspired by someone else's words and identify with their spiritual teachings, but that does not make you wise. Though we all have the capability to be insightful, unfortunately, we've been conditioned to focus and value the external world more. It takes years of discipline to be able look inward rather than outward for the answers. Unless you have a genuine desire to learn this, you'll be pulled away easily by the distractions of the outer world...

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Unexpected lessons

Come to accept that teetering, stumbling, falling is part of gaining balance again when life throws an unexpected curve. Lessons can be messy and uncomfortable, bringing us to our knees repeatedly as we crumble, rebuild, crumble, rebuild. It takes great faith to surrender to the unknowing, to the confusion, to the growing pains. In the gut-wrenching process of birthing stronger wings, watch your life transform...

*****

Wrap your arms around the journey

There will be times when life isn’t easy, 

when you feel out of balance, 

and when fear overrides your peace. 

But there will also be days when...

 the sounds of the world play the sweetest melody

 and you’re immersed in the warmth of wonder. 

*****

Reaching out

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others

-Mahatma Gandhi

With new eyes

 I finally broke down and bought a new camera. Though I love photography, I've been using an inexpensive point-and-shoot for years. It's becoming clearer to me how I easily I can talk myself into settling for less by using stupid justifications. I'm working to break this habit. Settling for less is a worthiness issue. Time to let go more false beliefs about myself. Love my new camera...

Using my new camera is a bit more challenging because it's heavy and bulkier. It's helping me to become more mindful because I have to hold the camera still when I snap a photo. The pictures would be crisper if I used a tripod, but that feels cumbersome....

What I instantly loved are the colors the camera captures. This little tiny bug to the naked eye would have looked like nothing, but my camera found a deeper truth...

I love to look for lessons. There's no doubt that the lesson here is though we may want to judge what we see with our eyes, there is a deeper truth and it is this: there is the beauty in everything and everyone. Sometimes it may be hidden under judgement, but if we look deeper, we will see it with our hearts...

Work in progress

Fear and justification go hand in hand. 

When we've learned to fully trust ourselves,

we won't need to defend or over-explain...

*****